Daily Yellowstone journal., 1887-02-02
A BOOK OF TRAVELS
tsNiTTeN BY A MAN WHO HAD
NEVER BEEN ABROAD.
Dstightfniiy Realistic Descriptions Of
Rsaces He Had Never seen-Lost In
Liverpool After Telling People All
About ~It-SociAl Success.


The author OF one Of the most interest.
~ books Of European travel ever written
0 gentleman who was never outside OF
lew York city until after his book was
Dabllshed. After its publication the au-
<AM paid himself the compliment OF read
- II, and IL so interested him that he
oAought he would like to 60 TO Europe.
N work was In its eleventh edition and
I'D made a great popular hit when the
Gnfhor bought @ ticket ON the White Star
- and embarked for foreign lands, His
ocean voyage and arrival in the old world
we're delightful, for he was q traveller who
I'D never seen anything and 10 whom
everything had the charm OF novelty.
After spending Q year In looking upon
things that he had described, this hal ~
traveller, who wrote his impressions fist
md saw his sights a%fterward, embarked
lcr home, and arrived in New York the
sther day on the steamship Adriailc.
He sat last night in q coy uptown hotel
b. q cracking fire and chstted with a
1kfend. After lighting a fresh cigar he
0id: "Yes, that book was a fake from
beginning TO end"
SHOW did you come to write it first and
20 your travelling afterwardl"
"Well, one summer day, Iour years ago,
when | was hard pressed and hadn't done
anything for O week but IA pun and a scurvy
est OF neral verses, for which | got $l.JO,
Enough the moral alone was worth 81, an
sut OF town publisher came to me and
asked me to write o book on foreign
tavel. 1 told him I had never Travelled
City miles In my life. He said IL didn't
make any difference, As II was not neces-
sary To travel 70 write Q book. He asked
n not to feel difitlent and said that he
had never Travelled himself. WELL said
4 II you've never been away from home,
end I've never been away from home, the
book may be ridiculous.' No. he re-
Piled; they will look upon il as a new
view Of Europe The publisher then told
~ that he had a proof reader who had
Been q tramp in Europe, and who would
correct any glaring mistakes | might
nake. We struck q bargain. i got all
the money l could In advance and went 70
work"
"How could you describe what you had
not seem"
81 will tel you. | got no end OF en-
eyclopedlas and guide books and photo
graphs. read seven or eight hours n day
and mDle copious notes. | saw Europe
through the eyes OF fifty people. | COL
kcted n lot OF petty facts of no interest To
give realism 10 the work. Then mapped
cut the book in a mathematical way and
decided how much I would give TO each
part Of my subject. Then | settled myself
sts desk in my garret and went TO writ
49, nua - tla .lff.a..Ittaa ....p a. ...s m
rapport with my scheme. wrote up
Venice after a days fishing oil ~Sheepshead
bay. spent two days in the Catskills
before writing up the Alps. wrote the
chapter on an hour in the sultan's seraglIo
smoking an old corncob pipe in my garnet
and carrying m an innocent Irritation with
o red headed girl in a tenement window
opposite. When / wanted TO write up the
hzzaroni OF Naples l went into Mulberry
street and studied the Italians in the alleys
and courts there. I went mp 10 Jones
Wood and Wendell park 10 prepare TO
write up the beer gardens OF Vienna and
their German holiday makers. Before
writing OF the Malay sailors on the ships
st London | visited the Malay colony in
New York. Before I got through my
book | discovered that New York WAS an
epitome of Europe, and that / ouly had In
take a street car 10 visit the nations OF the
earth.
"The book was a long and weary job,
but at last l got through with 1t and sent
Il to the publisher. The proofreader
took hold Of it then. | believe that he
had slept in every hedge and been in
every jail and visited every interesting
place in Europe. lie made so many
valAible corrections that four or five
ehnIters OF the book had To he rewritten.
The book was rushed through the press,
literally advertised and put on the market
three years ago. had worked the pub
hsher for all he was worth while | was
sending in the manuscript and was coI-
~siderably ahead Of him, and SO that was
the last | ever expected to hear OF my
astonishing travels. The book was favor
ably reviewed by the press, which said II
was the work OF an original observer,
and that some OF the descriptive passages
were fine hits of realistic writing.
"The first edition brought me a dress
coat and one OF those cofiin shirt fronts.
i found paragraphs in the newspapers
speaking of me as the celebrated trav-
01ffs UNkhn ~ lUlnk lUdl Il WIS ITO
longer a hack writer, but a man OF letters,
and when / received an invitation 10 a
fashionable reception in Fifth avenue |
got myself up regardless OF expense, and
concluded that / must be n literary artist.
I found that my hosts were lion hunters,
who had picked on me as a great traveller,
NO as a writer, and wanted 10 parade me
- an evidence Of their social success.
had never been in society, and no one
knew ANYTHING about mr.: so no one could
say I had never been TO Europe.
thought ] would carry out the farce. So
went 10 n score Of teas and kcttlelrums
that winter. where ] was always meeting
people who had been TO Europe fifteen or
sixteen times, and was ever In danger OF
exposing my ignorance. To avoid such q
catastrophe | read up petty, out Of the
way places, barren OF interest, where no
body had ever been, and when got TO q
party and was pushed 10 the wall for an
account Of my travels. l would describe
some by-path OF Europe that no one had
sver ~trayersed, or some insignificant
village that no traveller had ever seen.
az found that this expedient, which I
resorted 10 out Of sheer desperation,
greatly increased my reputation. The
people said that I was a. familiar with the
remotest hooks and corners OF Europe as
ordinary travellers were with the most
familiar places, like London and Paris.
So the book Of European travel went
along boomiDgly, and had soon covered
eight editions.
"One day, two years after II was writ
ten, and when | had quite forgotten II, !
picked MP "A book in a friends Office and
read IL 10 kill time while | was waiting.